Aladdin at Norwich Theatre Royal We’re off to the pantomime!
The pantomime at Norwich Theatre Royal this year is called ‘Aladdin’.
The Theatre The theatre is a place for telling stories. Using special lights, sounds, music, props (pretend objects), set (pretend places) and actors, dancers and singers, we help people enjoy wonderful and exciting stories. The pantomime is a magical story about Aladdin and his family, a genie, an evil wizard, an Emperor, a Princess and all of the magical and mystical things they get up to in the imaginary land of Nodgekin!
This Visual Story is going to tell you all about what to expect when you arrive at Norwich Theatre Royal.
We’ll also tell you all about the characters and a bit about the story of ‘Aladdin’.
And you are coming to watch this magical pantomime story of ‘Aladdin’ here with us! Here’s what you will be able to find at the theatre: • A foyer, with a welcome desk and a box office counter for buying tickets, • Two staircases leading up to the second floor of the foyer, as well as two lifts, • Men’s, women’s and accessible toilets, • Lots of places to buy drinks and snacks, • A restaurant, • And most importantly, a big stage and lots of seats for the audience to sit in and watch the magical story of ‘Aladdin’.
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You will have a theatre ticket which allows you entry to the theatre and tells you where to sit, there is one seat especially booked for you!
On this picture of a ticket, we’ve circled the letter and the number, which tell you which seat is yours. The theatre seats are split into rows which are lettered alphabetically, and every seat on each row has a number. The building might be quite busy when you arrive. Remember to stay close to the people that you came with.
There are lots of places to sit, upstairs in the foyer.
There will be Theatre Royal staff here to help you, they will be friendly people dressed in purple and black uniforms with name badges. They can help you find your way around.
There will be a room where you can go if you’d like to take a quiet break before, during or after the show, just tell a member of staff, and they will show you where to go.
Before the performance starts, the lights will darken, to let us know that the show is about to begin.
Don’t worry about being in the dark, in this Relaxed Performance of Aladdin the lights will never go out completely.
The stage will be decorated with brightly coloured ‘sets’ which tell us where the characters are, it might be a street in the local town and then it might change to the palace gardens, or a cave, or any other place you could think of!
Half-way through the performance there will be a break, called the ‘interval’.
This is a chance for you to go to the toilet and for the actors to have a rest before they perform the second half of the show! Once everyone is back in their seats, the lights will dim again to let us know that the second half of the performance is about to begin.
Let’s meet the characters in our story... The actors on stage will pretend to be the characters in the story of ‘Aladdin’.
There are good people, funny people and even evil people! (Don’t worry, everything is make-believe and the actors are just pretending, they’re all lovely people really.) Aladdinis the hero of our story.
He lives with his family in Nodgekin Town’, Aladdin’s mum, Widow Twankey, runs the local laundrette and his brother Wishee Washee is very funny and very silly! Widow Twankey is what’s called a ‘Pantomime Dame’ character, this means that the actor is a man dressed up as Widow Twankey using special make-up and clothes. Pantomime Dames are a part of the pantomime tradition, which goes back hundreds of years!
Widow Twankey sings songs, makes funny jokes and helps the audience to join in with the story.
Lots of people live in Nodgekin with Aladdin, Wishee Washee and Widow Twanky. The Nodgekin Townsfolk all wear the same outfits and hats, so you’ll know who they are.
The people playing the Townsfolk are called the chorus, they dance and sing and sometimes they play other characters, like ladies at the Palace Gardens, or Police Guards. Here are the men in the chorus dressed up as Police Guards.
These are the Nodgekin Pandas!
In our story, the Pandas are played by children. In theatre sometimes we have to use our imagination and pretend. In Nodgekin, Pandas are very special animals and they must be kept safe.
They live in the Palace Gardens with the Emperor and the royal family.
Nodgekin Pandas are so special that if anyone steals or keeps a Panda without the Emperor’s permission, they are sentenced to death! (Don’t worry, not in real life, only in the story!) During the performance, the Pandas sing and dance. Sometimes they get into trouble!
This is Nodgekin’s Emperor, who is in charge of everything in the town.
Here he is with his daughter, Princess Willow. At the beginning of the play, Princess Willow meets Aladdin in Nodgekin town. She is disguised, wearing a cloak. She pretends she is called Will, and is the Princess’ maid, because she doesn’t want to get in trouble for being outside the palace! She’s looking for something (or someone) in Nodgekin Town, can you guess what it is?
This is the Genie, she is the good magical character She is a magical being who appears whenever anybody rubs the golden lamp.
She can make wishes come true! She helps Aladdin and his friends along the way, performing magic and appearing and disappearing whenever she is called!
Abanazar is the evil magical character in our play! Sometimes he uses his magic powers to make people move and do things he wants them to. He is desperate to steal the magic lamp and the Genie so that she can make all his evil wishes come true.
When Abanazar comes on stage, we all ‘Hiss!’ and ‘Boo!’, because he’s evil and we don’t like him at all!
Aladdin thinks he’s just an ordinary boy, but he’s about to find out he’s much more than that!
We can’t wait to find out all about Aladdin’s adventures in this magical pantomime story.
That’s the end of our Visual Story for ‘Aladdin’ at Norwich Theatre Royal!
(Don’t worry, the actor is only pretending to be evil, he’s not really scary.)
What do you think will happen? Will Abanazar be able to steal the magic lamp? Will Aladdin and his friends be able to stop Abanazar and his evil plan?
Remember to say “Booo!!” and “Hiisss!!” when he comes on stage!
We can’t wait to see you!
Look out, here comes our baddie now. Here comes Abanazar!
We’ll just have to wait and see, but we know you’ll have brilliant time watching our Pantomime, ‘Aladdin’ at Norwich Theatre Royal!